Real-Life "Pied Piper" Sells Out to Facebook

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We don't know if QuickFire Networks was watching HBO's "Silicon Valley" where its fictional startup Pied Piper was built a platform to reduce file sizes, but it showed up at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2014 Battlefield to show that it was doing pretty much the same thing.

QuickFire Networks built a hardware and software platform that compresses video file sizes and increases upload times, according to the Wall Street Journal, and was acquired by Facebook Thursday.

Facebook has been making a push to get its users to upload video directly to its site, instead of linking to videos on other sites like Youtube. Hosting the videos keeps Facebook users on the service and gives the company more control over how the videos can be viewed and placed around advertising. Quickfire’s technology could help speed up that process.

QuickFire "speeds up encoding videos with different profiles for frame rate, resolution, color and audio settings for different platforms," according to TechCrunch. Basically this means users will suffer less video buffering and better video quality.

However, QuickFire's chief Craig Lee differs from fictional Pied Piper chief Richard who declines a buyout from a bigger tech company to grow his own company. Instead, Lee wrote a quick note on its site saying it will "take the next step in our growth" by joining Facebook.